Walnut Creek Guide Community

In Contra Costa County, 16 miles northeast of Oakland, is the beautiful and affluent city of Walnut Creek, an East Bay Area hub of entertainment, shopping and outdoor space. While the city is smaller than neighboring Concord, it boasts 66,000 residents and 19.5 square miles, as well as an abundance of open space preserves, fine weather, high-end shopping opportunities and top-notch schools. In addition, the city enjoys the mild climate of the region with a location far enough away from the bay to remain quite warm in the winters but still cool in the summers. With a community that takes part in the rich Northern California outdoor lifestyle, the art and culture of the Bay Area and affluence of the city, Walnut Creek is diverse, exciting and a great place to live, work and visit.

With a humble origin as “The Corners,” where the Lafayette and Pacheco roads met, the city didn’t begin its development until 1855 when Lafayette man Milo Hough decided to build the Walnut Creek Hotel, a store and a blacksmith shop in the area. Others followed his example, eventually leading to the establishment of a U.S. Post Office in 1862. It was at this time that “The Corners” was renamed Walnut Creek. The city was officially incorporated in 1914.

While the city was quickly developed in the 50s and 60s, Walnut Creek has done much to preserve its natural beauty, protecting many of the city’s ridgelines in open space preserves. Walnut Creek is currently home to 3,000 acres of chaparral, grassland savannah and oak woodlands, which means the city has the largest owned and operated open space in the entire Bay Area. All that open space is perfect for a city with mild weather and 262 sunny days a year for enjoying the outdoors. With only 20.6 inches of rain over 55 days a year and beautiful natural spaces, there is no better place for enjoying the outdoors. Whether you hope to enjoy a picnic, play outside with your kids or hike and bike, Walnut Creek is an ideal spot.

As the Bay Area is rather diverse, Walnut Creek is also pretty colorful. With a population that is 54 percent female, older on average and only 82 percent white, there are many opportunities for exploring different cultures and cuisines. In addition, the city is more educated than the California average, which leads to a higher quality of life and emphasis on education. This emphasis on education can be seen in the high rankings of the local schools. Overall, Walnut Creek’s schools receive a nine out of 10 on the Academic Performance Index scale, and many of the schools receive a perfect 10.

In order to protect Walnut Creek’s high quality of life, the city has put into place many emergency services that are easily accessible to the public, from multiple police and fire stations to C.E.R.T. and other disaster preparedness programs. Walnut Creek is also known for its strong medical community and abundance of hospitals and surgical centers. Whether you have health problems or come down with an illness or have an accident, this community is a good place to be.